Relationship of adhesive and toxigenic properties of Escherichia coli isolated from calves and piglets

Toxigenic E. coli (STEC) is the main cause of intestinal diseases of calves and piglets, leading to significant economic losses in animal husbandry. The pathogenicity of E. coli is determined by the production of various adhesion factors and toxin formation, between which a correlation can be traced, which was the purpose of these studies. In our article, studies have been conducted on the detection of various types of adhesives in pathogenic E. coli isolated from calves and piglets. With the help of molecular genetic methods, the presence of markers of toxin formation in adhesive-positive and adhesive-negative strains of E. coli was established. 63% of isolates with fimbrial adhesion factors were identified, in most cases they were type 1 and type 2 fimbriae, of which 52.4% were most often isolated from calves and 48.8% from piglets, respectively. Specific fimbriae K99, K88, 987F, F41 and A20 simultaneously contained 13.5% of strains. In calves, the main role was played by E. coli with type A20 adhesives (39.7%), and in piglets with type K88 adhesives (43.3%). In addition, 56% of strains isolated from calves and piglets have a correlation of adhesion factors with genetic markers of exotoxin production, while LT was more often recorded in adhesive-positive E. coli (17.6%), and type 2 STX in adhesive-negative E. coli (11%). It was found that among the adhesive-positive escherichia with several markers of exotoxins, LT type and STX2 type genes are more often present.